Hello and welcome to ‘Mad Meringue Week’, every day for the next seven days I will be bringing you a different recipe and flavour of meringue, why you may ask, my reply, ‘why not’! It is Summer after all and even though meringues are perfect any time of the year, you can not beat their light sugary yumminess on a hot summers days served with gorgeous seasonal fruit and lashings of fresh cream, just heavenly. Unlike many desserts, they are not too heavy and filling and being served cold are not going to over heat you on a barmy hot summers day, you can also make them in advance, so perfect for summer entertaining.
I am going to bring you whoppers like the one’s above, meringues bursting with flavour and recipes that you can use in different ways, where possible I will try and give you two recipes a day, using the same flavours, starting with today. Today you will get the recipes for the chocolate meringue whoppers and for my prize winning chocolate gooey stack. So one simple recipe and one that is a little harder.
One of the things I love about meringues is that you need so few ingredients and you still end up with a stunning dessert. Meringues are my emergency fall back pud, for when I need something sweet, but don’t want to go to the shops for special ingredients, nearly all of us have sugar and eggs in our store cupboard and for simple meringues, thats all you really need! Also they are a great way of using up old eggs, older egg whites seem to work so much better than fresh eggs. I always use eggs that are at room temperature, but there is a little debate over this, so do what works best for you.
One thing I can not stress highly enough when making meringue is… always make sure that the bowl that you are whisking the eggs in is perfectly clean and grease free.
So back to my chocolate meringue whoppers, you could of course make them smaller, make nests, but I just wanted huge, fat, indulgent meringues, dusted with a little cocoa powder and just looking rather impressive in their size. The meringue was perfectly crisp and dry on the outside, but gorgeously gooey on the inside, a little like the perfect centre of a really good chocolate brownie.
The recipe suggests using a good quality dark chocolate, but you could use any chocolate that you fancy, I used salted butterscotch milk chocolate and it was heavenly. Just think of the fun you can have, companies like Green and Blacks have a vast range of flavours, you could try orange, mint, ginger, even burnt toffee.
So whatever flavour chocolate you decide on, how ever big you make them, but be brave, make them huge and fun if you dare, I hope you enjoy them and also enjoy the weeks fun of meringue madness.
PS : If you are wondering what to do with the left over yolks, why not make my simple carbonara https://www.gelsominascucina.com/2011/05/i-hate-bt-spaghetti-alla-carbonara.html , perfect, no waste and you have a delicious meal 🙂
Buon appetito
CHOCOLATE MERINGUE WHOPPERS
3 egg whites
150g/5½oz golden caster sugar
50g/2oz good quality dark chocolate, grated or finely chopped
2 tsp cocoa, sieved
Preheat the oven to 140C/275F/Gas 1.
Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. I wanted whoppers, so I drew around a saucer, it only made 3, but they were amazing.
In a clean, dry bowl whisk egg whites until soft peaks form.
Gradually whisk in the sugar until stiff peaks form.
Stir together the chocolate and cocoa and fold gently into the meringue.
Spoon tablespoons of the mixture onto the prepared trays and quickly put in the oven before the mixture loses volume.
Cook for 40 minutes. My whoppers took a little longer and when the time was up I switched off the oven and left them in there until the oven was cooled completely.
Dust with a dusting of cocoa powder and either serve on their own with an espresso or cup of tea, or as a dessert with cream, ice cream, or what ever you fancy. Cream and raspberries would be heavenly.
CHOCOLATE GOOEY STACK
FOR THE MERINGUE DISCS:
6 large egg whites
300g golden caster sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
3 baking sheets
FOR THE CREME PATISSIERE:
6 large egg yolks
100g golden caster sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons plain flour
300ml full-fat milk
300ml double cream
100g the best dark chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
20g pistachios, chopped, I gave mine a gold dust finish with a crushed Crunchie & gold edible glitter, I love a little sparkle, what girl doesn’t?
Preheat the oven to 140ºC/gas mark 1.
Line the baking sheets with parchment and draw a 20cm circle on each one. The simplest way to do this is simply to find a bowl or cake tin with the desired dimensions, plonk it on and draw round it. I made mine in a circle the first time, but wanted something a little different for Pudding Club and so did squares. You can have fun, maybe hearts for Valentines and top with Raspberries.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then add the sugar a spoonful at a time, beating in well after each addition. Believe me – and I speak as someone often criminally impatient – it does make life easier to go slowly here. Sprinkle over the cocoa and vinegar and then fold in gently but firmly.
Divide the dusky meringue between the 3 circles, spreading evenly. You don’t need to worry too much about beating the air out of them as you smooth; I find they withstand a modicum of brutality. Don’t you just love it when Nigella uses words like brutality to describe baking!
Cook for 1 hour, then turn off the oven, leaving the meringues in until cool. Often, I just make them before I go to bed and leave them in the switched-off oven overnight. It makes for less hanging about. And as long as you keep them airtight, with sheets of baking parchment in between, you can do these a good week or so in advance.
Now for the creme patissiere: beat the egg yolks and sugar together, then add the cocoa and flour, whisking well. Warm the milk and cream in a saucepan, then, whisking, pour this onto the eggs and sugar before pouring everything back into the saucepan on the heat and, stirring constantly, bring it to the boil. When the mixture has thickened, take it off the heat and stir in the melted chocolate and vanilla.
Let it cool now, but avoid putting it into the fridge as it will become too solid. You can stop it forming a skin either by covering with buttered baking parchment or greaseproof paper or by sieving a layer of icing sugar over. What I often prefer to do, however, and which cuts out more waiting around, is to plunge the saucepan into a sinkful of iced water and just keep stirring: it doesn’t take long to get cold.
To assemble the cake, place one of the meringue discs on a flat plate (I rather like those tea-shop cake-stands, though preferably in glass), spread with a third of the chocolate cream, then carry on layering. Scatter over the chopped pistachios, which will gleam out, a tender grass-green against the dark chocolate. Then just cut in: and you’ll find that it gives the illusion of a fine layering of multi-stacked, custard-bellied wafers; this is because each meringue, with its soft innards and crisp carapace, looks and tastes like three layers, not one.
Word of advice, if you want to make this in advance, you can make the meringues and keep them in an airtight container with parchment in between, but I would only do this for about a day, not a week as the recipe suggests. Make the creme patissiere on the day, leave it to cool, but don’t put it together until you really have to, as it starts to dissolve the meringue, which is lovely and gives the centre that lovely mousse like texture, but over time it will become a bit soggy.
It is a little hard work and possibly one of the trickier desserts on
the blog, but its a chocoholics dream.
Serves: 10-12
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